Though the continuous rain had eased by September 12th, some areas are still submerged under water. According to local newspapers, the death toll has reached to 7 in East Japan and 15 are still missing in Joso City.
On 12th morning, AMDA/Soja joint emergency relief team departed from Soja City, Okayama prefecture and arrived in Nikko City in Tochigi Prefecture in the afternoon. An AMDA Volunteer nurse from Saitama also joined the team in Utsunomiya and travel together to Nikko with the team.
After arriving at the Disaster Management Center (DMC) of Nikko City, the team talked with city officials to collect updated information and also discussed about the current needs. In the meeting, the team found that people in Serisawa district of Nikko City were at risk of isolation due to road conditions. Therefore, the city was planning to open a new evacuation center in the area and the team decided to provide some support in the area.
On the next day, after confirming with the DMC about the location and condition of the evacuation center in Serisawa, the team departed. All roads connected to a major city where residents purchase their daily necessities were not accessible except one road from Nikko City. After arriving at the evacuation center, AMDA nurse checked evacuees’ health conditions by checking their vital signs and asking their sleeping condition and if they are taking any medications etc. Some evacuees are anxious about lacking their daily medicines, and some others told us about inconvenience of temporal toilets. If one wakes up and goes to bathroom at night, everyone wakes up as all evacuees are sleeping in one room. Thus, some of them decided to hold and wait till the morning before they relive themselves.
AMDA team distributed relief goods mainly personal hygiene items at the center. On their return to Nikko, the team went back to the DMC at Nikko City and reported about their activities.
Tomorrow on the 14th, they will move to Kanuma city in Tochigi Prefecture to help the affected people to clean their houses.